Shipping cartons of the type contemplated by the present invention are commonly employed both for transport and display of articles transported within the cartons. The articles may be any of a wide variety but typically are household products such as liquid containers.
The use of cartons for both transport and display at a point of sale of the same articles is particularly common in warehouse clubs and the like where large volumes of similar articles are displayed for sale. In such operations, it is common to transport large numbers of the articles in cartons on pallets with the palletized cartons forming a display for the articles at the point of sale in the warehouse type operation.
Where the articles being transported and displayed are relatively heavy, formation of the cartons in a display-ready mode during both transport and subsequent display becomes relatively difficult because of the need for assuring structural rigidity of the cartons. This is particularly true, for example, where the cartons are stacked upon each other on a pallet as described above.
For this reason, many shipping cartons tend to form a complete enclosure for the articles at least during transport. When the cartons reach the point of sale, they are then prepared for display, for example, by removing a cover, by removing panels or by folding or otherwise disposing of panels in order to facilitate display of the articles within the cartons and to permit their removal by consumers or the like as desired.
Accordingly, such prior art transport and display cartons have been relatively complex, commonly including complete box-like enclosure with partitions forming cells therein. Such cartons normally require the removal or manipulation of a portion of the carton in order to permit display of articles in the cartons upon arrival at a point of sale. In addition, the relative complexity of such cartons increases their cost and difficulty of assembling and filling with articles.
Furthermore, it has become common practice to arrange large number of cartons on pallets for both transport to the point of sale and for display. Particularly where the cartons contain relatively heavy articles such as liquid containers, the number of cartons stacked one upon the other is relatively limited. With the cartons arranged upon the pallet prior to transport, they are commonly wrapped together with the pallet by means of bands or transparent stretch-wrap. With the cartons stabilized on the pallets by means of the bands or stretch-wrap and reinforced by separate corner posts, they are then transported to the point of sale.
The bands or stretch-wrap are then readily removed at the point of sale and present only a limited amount of material for disposal. However, with the prior art cartons as noted above, substantial additional effort is required to further condition the individual cartons for display of articles contained therein and removal of the articles as desired.